Starting with the F-Open discipline for Friday’s Palma match, Adam “Epic” Shidla took the honors at 800 with a 149-8X besting John Rykhus by 3 x’s against a strong field of shooters. Chris “Sharpshooter until Tuesday” Longley took the honors at 900 with a 149-8x followed by John Rykhus with a 148-4x. John was in the lead going into the final 1000 yard stage and needed to turn in one more solid performance to win Friday’s Palma match. Conditions took a bad turn for John at 1000 with a 142-3x placing him solidly in third. Bob Mead never gives up many points and came in second with a 440-14x. Chris “Sharpshooter until Tuesday” Longley took the top spot with a 441-15x.

Saturday’s 1000 yard championship fielded 19 F-Open shooters for a hotly contested 3 matches. National team member Pat Scully turned in the high score for the first match at 1000 yards with a 199-7x besting the remaining shooters by at least 2 points. Eric “Cakes” Johnson turned in a 197-10x for second followed closely behind by Chris “Sharpshooter until Tuesday” Longley with a 197-6x. Marksman, but not for long, Russ “I can make that, only better” Adamski turned in a 195-3x with his first LR match with his new co-axial rest of his own design. The second match had Bob Sebold turning in a very impressive 198-10X followed closely behind by Marksman Russ “I can make that, only better” Adamski’s 196-6x. Nipping at their heels only a point back were Bob Loepfe and Pat Scully both turning in 195-6x scores.

The third match had all the big shooters closlely bunched up like the start of a dirt track outlaw race. Anyone could win, it was matter of who made the least mistakes in some really tough conditions. Bob Sebold took charge and turned in an incredible 200-11X to secure the aggregate win with a very impressive 594-29X. Pat Scully turned in 3 solid scores to get an aggregate of 590-21x to secure Second Place and be the MN 1000 Yard
F-Open Champion. Close behind in third was Chris “Sharpshooter until Tuesday” Longley with a 587-12x. Fourth Place with a 586-18x went to Eric “Cakes” Johnson who was also rumored to be holding a soon to be invalid master classification card.

Sunday’s Palma match had everyone excited. The target looks big at 800 yards, but it will tempt the lesser experienced shooters into a sense of complacency, then up comes a 9! Five shooters weren’t fooled by the target and cleaned the 800 yard stage. Eric “Cakes” Johnson and Jim Bauer tied with 13 x’s, followed by Pat Scully, Bob Sebold, and Chris “Sharpshooter until Tuesday” Longley with 11, 10, and 9 x’s respectively. Pat Scully turned in the only clean at 900 yards with 9x’s. Eric Johnson shot a 149-9x followed by Chris “Blah, Blah, Blah…” Longley with a 149-8x. Moving on to 1000 yards, once missed wind call or a burst of mirage was going to decide the Palma championship. Pat Scully goes into the last stage clean, followed by Eric Johnson and Chris “…….” Longley just a point behind. Eric’s 22 x’s over Pat’s 20 X’s might just be the deciding factor. When the smoke cleared, Eric secured the Palma F-Open trophy with a 448-30X score. Wisconsin’s Jim Bauer turn in three solid scores for a 448-25x second place finish. Rick Sievers turned in three 149 scores for a very respectable 447-16x.

The aggregate of Saturday and Sunday’s scores crown the MN Long Range Champion and that honor goes to Pat Scully with an incredible score over two days of 1036-46x. Second place went to Bob Sebold with a 1035-49x and third went to Eric Johnson with a 1034-48x. Fourth went to cough, cough, Sharpshooter Chris Longley with a 1033—34x. Four places separated by four points over 1050 possible points. That’s some tough competition!

Honors for the Friday Palma, Saturday 1000 yard, Sunday Palma aggregate went to Chris Longley with a 1474-49x following two points behind by Pat Scully with a 1472-59x.

On the F-TR side, John Andres won Friday’s Palma match with a 415-7x. Second went to Steve Winselman with a 413-7x. Eight F-TR shooters competed in Saturday’s 1000 yard championship. Big Andrew Jewison took the first match with a 195-4x followed by new shooter Justin Bistodeau with a 190-7x. After a 2 year hiatus, yours truly came to the realization that you don’t get to resume where you left off. The list of what I did wrong would dwarf War and Peace. My 179-2x left me near the bottom of the pack after the first match. Shaun Humphreys turned in a 194-2x followed by Big Andrew Jewison with a 191-7x and I started to get the hang of things with a third place 191-6x. Chuck Laitinen took the third match with a 194-6x with Andrew Jewison right behind shooting a 193-7x. Big Andrew’s consistently good scores secured him the title of MN 1000 Yard F-TR Champion.

Sunday’s Palma match had everyone excited. For me, it was a chance to prove to myself that I hadn’t forgotten all that I had learned over the years. Without a doubt, there was still some things not working as they should! Drew “The Driver” Rutherford took the 800 yard honors with a 150-8x and I also cleaned 800 with a 150-5x. Big Andrew Jewison dropped one point and several others were 2 points down. John Andres shot an awesome 149-6x at 900 yards to take the second stage and Chuck Laitinen and I both shot 147’s. Going into the 1000 yard stage, John Andres had the lead in x’s, with myself right behind. Big Andrew Jewison and Chuck Laitinen were a couple of points back. One slip at 1000 and someone could easily take the lead. Most of us f-TR shooters were squadded on Relay 3 and the sun came out just as we got to the firing line. Mirage became intense and we struggled to see the target. Scoring rings were not visible at all. When the firing stopped and the scores were turned in, my 143-2x took the 1000 yard stage and allowed me to win the MN F-TR Palma Championship with an aggregate of 440-9x. 3 points back was Big Andrew Jewison taking second and John Andres took third with a 436-14x.

Big Andrew Jewison took the title of 2016 MN F-TR Long Range Champion with an aggregate of 1016-29x. Second place went to Chuck Laitinen with a 99-25x with yours truly third, just a point behind Chuck. Steve Winselman took the honors of the grand aggregate of all 3 days with a great score of 1372-10x.

Only two teams competed in the tough conditions of the 1000 yard team match. The F-Open team of Mike Jones and Rick Sievers posted a score of 378-6x. The F-TR team of Chuck Laitinen and myself posted a score of 374-7x. I posted the highest individual score with a 191-4x just beating Mike Jones by 1x.

I’d like to thank Mark and his crew of volunteers for an awesome match. It was great to have a full firing line for Saturday and Sunday.